Great Patriots forging a New Nation On this day two hundred and forty years ago, a group of forward thinking men came to an agreement to declare the formation of a new nation named the United States of America. In doing so, they declared the Thirteen Colonies free of British rule as of that date. And while it was just an announcement on that date, it brought with it the beginning of a brutal war for independence from the Crown, for Great Britain would never easily surrender dominion over lands from which it had so much to gain. Rich resources and foodstuffs, new areas to explore and tame, and the endless desire for domination and power that King George desired would be lost should the monarch grant his Colonies freedom.
It started badly, but the Colonial Army under George Washington labored through until finally it attained a victory at Trenton and with it the courage and determination to fight on. After all, had they lost they would have lost everything they owned, including their lives. Many had already died and more would follow until the finality of the conflict was reached, but the patriots knew if they could stop the advance and start showing an offensive capability against the Crown, King George would eventually realize that he could no longer afford the undertaking in addition to other parts of the world requiring troops and a war footing.
Much of the less told story involved great men who didn't fight like Washington, but men who spent agonizing years away from families fostering good relationships in Europe with the enemies of King George, thereby gaining money and resources needed to keep the effort going. These men included John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, men who worked diligently to keep the war effort solvent which resulted eventually in the French sending her Naval armada under the Marquis de Lafayette to limit British troop movements by sea. The eventual success of Washington achieving his goal of pushing Lord Cornwallis to Yorktown on the Virginia Peninsula in conjunction with Lafayette's closing off of the entry into the Chesapeake Bay in October 1781 ledd to the surrender at Yorktown ending the conflict.
Last night on my show Sunday Morning Coming Down I talked about the greatness of America and the bravery of those great freedom lovers and fighters of that time and I surmised that Divine Providence was present and in support of the cause. Citing Romans 13 and Ephesians 6, I commented on the importance of men of all levels, leaders as well as the common folk, to understand that we are created by God and therefore expected to live by his example and for Him. That King George put the Colonies in dire straits, taking needed foodstuffs for survival, stationing soldiers at arms against his own subjects while living in their homes and showing brutality in trying to enforce his tyrannical ways, led the Colonists to the rebellion. They sought truth and freedom and those two goals when attempted with God at your side are powerful weapons. My show is still available and should you want to listen to it you can find it at blogtalkradio.com/northfloridawriterlive.
Following the broadcast I pondered the question posed at the top of today's blog and instead of trying to come up with a unique explanation I think it best to look to the greatest explanation of all, the Declaration Independence. For this reason, the entirety of the narrative of that beloved document follows. I hope everyone who hasn't already done so will read it, for it makes very clear why those great early Americans did what they did and it also shows the importance they placed in God in the effort. Many of us have forgotten that as we turn from God so frequently and think man can answer all things. He can't and he won't, only men inspired by God can perform such a miracle as defeating the greatest power of it's time on earth. God is their with them giving them the strength to fight. Read it, think about it and then thank God for having the opportunity to live in the greatest nation on earth. Here's the Declaration:
The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
God bless America. May we and she always be free. Happy 240th Birthday.
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